At the stroke of 8:30, Washington DC time, an army of small white robots with the false appearance of Wall-E will launch themselves onto the square in front of the American Supreme Court. Controlled remotely, these little creatures come with a camera and a sticker that they proudly display “Abortion pills by mail in all 50 states”, will distribute mifepristone pills, the drug that allows medical abortion, to passers-by. An event signed Aid Access, the organization of the Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts who has been fighting against the ban on abortion for decades through its various platforms by sending pills all over the world, which will not fail to draw attention to what is happening today.
Because this March 26 the Supreme Court will have to examine the legislation relating to mifepristone and will propose the threat of a ban for a few months, before ruling around June. In other words, the nine Supreme Court justices are harking back to the June 2022 coup, the date they voted to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade, who had constitutionally protected the right to abortion since 1973 and seemed untouchable. That time is over: in 2024 there is no longer any doubt that the US Supreme Court is capable of anything.
Abortion pills sent by mail
But where does the confusion come from? Mifepristone has in fact been validated by the sacrosanct Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2000. At the time, it was necessary to have it prescribed by a doctor whom the patient had to see in person over the course of three visits. Since 2016, however, the FDA has relaxed these rules, allowing Americans to obtain the drug through a telemedicine appointment and receive it through the mail.
But this easing has made dissatisfied: Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Texan judge appointed by Donald Trump in 2017. This ultra-conservative, former lawyer for a Christian organization that fights against abortion, imposed a ban on mifepristone in April 2023, arguing that the FDA had no authority to relax the regulations. Result: the file ends up on the table of the Supreme Court. And that’s not necessarily good news. “ The Supreme Court has a conservative majority and the decisions issued in 2022 and 2023 have reversed many social gains. explains Ludivine Gilli, director of the North American Observatory of the Jean Jaurès Foundation. “If overturning Roe v. Wade is the most symbolic, the Court also limited the progress achieved in the fields of firearms, discrimination, health, the environment, voting rights or the place of religion in schools. » We owe him, among other things, the end of positive discrimination in universities or the reduction of the action capabilities of the Environmental Protection Agency that fights against climate change.
Among the nine justices that make up the Court we also find two men accused of sexual assault, Brett Kavanaugh, appointed in 2018 despite the accusations of Christine Blasey Ford who claims he attempted to rape her at a party in 1982, and Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 despite Anita Hill’s testimony regarding harassment. It is not surprising that this conservative majority is the work of Donald Trump, who appointed three judges in four years, when Barack Obama had appointed only two in eight years.
50 years of lobbying against abortion
The Supreme Court’s decision on mifepristone is, in reality, just the continuation of a long anti-abortion campaign that has been going on for decades. “ The revocation of Roe v. Wade was already the result of a methodical strategy developed over 50 years by the most conservative branch of the Republican Party », continues Ludivine Gilli. With the white Protestant evangelical community at the helm, “ a radical but very active minority. » « This strategy had three components: repeated attempts in the courts to limit abortion access and rights as much as possible, pressure on elected officials to nominate conservative judges, and an effort to identify and select very conservative judges to put forward as nominees. »
So how can we fight back against 50 years of the anti-abortion lobby? Bypassing the laws. This is what hundreds of American women are doing as of 2022. Today, abortion is banned or inaccessible due to a lack of clinics in fifteen states, extremely restricted in six, and restricted in eleven others. There remain only eighteen states where this right is still protected. In these countries (such as Massachusetts, Colorado, California, New York) new laws, called “shield”, have been created to authorize doctors to remotely prescribe medical abortions to women in states where access is complicated or prohibited .
The organization Aid Access uses these shield laws in particular: “ “The doctors who work with us can continue to send these pills to all 50 states because they are licensed by the states that have passed these shield laws, this protects them from any legal action by the ‘red states’.” explains Dr. Rebecca Gomperts. So much so that, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute published on March 19, more than one million abortions could be performed in the United States in 2023. Among these pregnancy losses, 63% were receiving medical treatment, compared to 53% in 2020 and 6% in 2001.
Abortion, a decisive issue for the November elections
This is a now prevalent possibility that could disappear by June in the event of a ban on mifepristone. If Dr. Rebecca Gomperts ensures that her organization “ will continue to send pills to all 50 states no matter what “, the consequences for Americans seem dramatic.” Banning this drug would further complicate the situation in states where access is limited and medical abortion is the last remaining resort », warns Ludivine Gilli. But also in places where abortion is protected, because if these states no longer have access to mifepristone, they will be forced to perform all abortions surgically and will not have enough clinics to meet demand. “ In Maine, for example, only three clinics offer surgical abortions, while there are eighteen Planned Parenthood centers licensed to provide medical abortions using mifepristone. » adds Ludivine Gilli.
Seven months before the presidential elections, is the issue of abortion about to return to the fore in the electoral campaign? “ Electorally, abortion is a pro-Democrat mobilization issue, and a sweeping Supreme Court decision on mifepristone would undoubtedly strengthen the fears and mobilization of the electorate, particularly women, younger and more independent voters. . » notes Ludivine Gilli. Joe Biden understood this well. On March 18 he declared: “ those who brag about overturning Roe v. Wade and those who support abortion bans have no idea the extent of women’s power. »
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
